Vegetable slicing machine



Oct. 4, 1938. M. R. ANSTICE VEGETABLE SLICING MACHINE Filed April 18,1936 4 Sheets-Sheet l Oct. 4, 1938. M, R. ANSTICE VEGETABLE SLICINGMACHINE Filed April 18, 1936 4 Shee'gs-Sheet 2 Oct. 4, 1938. M. R.ANSTICE 2,131,851

VEGETABLE SLIGING MACHINE Filed April 18, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Q i N%Rw r Law mm t WNQ W a m w U w u N WW 5 Y3K mg q\ 51 m W 8. W 'vwm 1938-M. R. ANSTICE VEGETABLE SLICING MACHINE Filed April 18, 1956 4Sheets-Sheet 4 tical section illustrating one of the knife clearingPatented Oct. 4, 1938 that the. knives will at all times have apredeter- VEGETABLE SLIQING MACHINE Mortimer It. Anstice, Rochester, N.Y., assignor to Josiah." Anstice & Company, 1110., Rochester, N. Y.,acorporation of New .York

; Application April 18, 1936, Serial No."75,216

4 Claims. (Cl. '14698) The present invention has beenv conceived anddesigned to provide a machine whichis comparatively. simple ofconstruction yet is highly efficient in the slicing of various fruitsand various vegetables such as carrots, beets, potatoesaor the like intostrips of what are often termed shoestring.or julie nne shapes.

One of thenovel features and objects of the invention is to provideanimproved manner of mounting and supporting cutting knives in respect tothe bed or conveyor of the machine so mined engagement with the bediorconveyor.

and permit the passage'beneath them of any foreign substance; which mayaccidentally reach the knives and which would have a tendency to break,nick, or otherwise injure them. d I

Another objectof the inventionis the provision of a machine so designedthat the: connector for the adjacent ends of the conveyor is protectedagainst being cut or damaged by the'knives and in turn the knivesareprotected against damage from the connectors in the event the sameshould be of a metallic nature.- V i A. still furtheriobject of theinvention is the provision of automatic means for clearing the knives ofstrips cut from the vegetables or other produce-upon which the knivesare operating;

Another and still further object of .the invention is to provideayieldable supporting means for the slicing knives whereby the knivesare freely movable towards and away from the con- Other furtherobjects,noveljfeatures of construction and improved results will appear in thefollowing descriptionwhen read in the light of the accompanyingdrawings.

In the drawing d Fig. 3 is a. fragmentary enlarged-detail viewin'vertical section taken on the line 33 of, Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional View throughaportion of the machine bed or conveyor showing invertical section theengagement of several of the knives with said bed.

Fig. 5 is .an enlarged detail View partly in verfingers andtheengagement of one of the knives with the conveyor.

Fig. 6 is 'av fr agm mounted shafts l and 2.

partly in vertical section illustrating the .manner it in which theknives will pass over the thickened portion of the conveyor at the pointwhere the conveyor ends are joined together.

Fig. '7 is a view in end elevation of a modified form of the invention.

Fig. 8 is a'view in side elevation of the machine a pearing in Fig. 7. I

Fig.9 is a View in side elevation of a further form of slicer.

Fig. '10 is a detail View partly in vertical section illustrating thecage carrying the cutting knives of the machine illustrated in Fig. 9.

Fig. 11 is a fragmentary view in elevation of a modified form ofsupporting the knives in the modified form of machine appearing in'Figs.'7 and 8 of the drawings. v i

One form of the machine embodying the present invention appears in Figs.1 to 6 inclusive,

wherein it will be seen that A represents a metalhe frame ofapproximately arectangular configuration upon the opposite ends of whichare A drum or roller is mounted upon each of the shafts and is rotatabletherewithand over these drums an endless conveyor B is trained. Suitableflanges 3 at the drum ends guard against longitudinal displacement ofthe belt.

The conveyor is in the form of a belt which preferably has a rubbersurface, and as appears in Fig.3 of the drawings the belt may be of alaminated nature in that its rubber surface 4 maybecarried upon asuitable base such as fabric 51' The belt may be of a form wherein it istruly endless in the sense that its ends are vulcanized together, orthe'belt may be of the form illustrated'in Fig.6 of the drawings wherethe belt ends 6 and i are secured together by suitable metallicfastening means 8.

It is to be understood however that the belt need'not be of a laminatednature as it could be composed'entirely of rubber, and furthermore itwill'be understood that it is not absolutely essential that the belt becomposed of rubber, although rubber has been found to be the preferablematerial to use.

A shaft 9 is rotatably supported in bearings Hi formed at one end of thearms II which are pivotally mounted as at 12 to the supporting frame.

These arms extend upwardly from their pivotal supports at each side ofthe frame and at each sideof the conveyor belt, as appears clearly frombelt and above the drum at the right hand end of the machine.

A plurality of circular knives 13 are loosely mounted upon the shaft andare spaced from one another by suitable spacers l4 also loosely mountedupon the shaft 9. These circular knives and spacers are disposed betweenrollers C which are loosely mounted upon the shaft. Tubular bushings l5extend through these rollers and have engagement at their inner endswith the spacers l6 positioned between the outermost knives and therollers while their other ends are engaged by right and left handthreaded nuts I1. These bushings extend outwardly beyond the outer facesof the hub portions I 8 of the rollers whereby the nuts can be tightenedupon the bushings. With the construction described the knives andbushings can be tightly clamped for rotation with the shaft bytightening the nuts 11 and I8 without tightening against the rollers.

At this point attention is directed to the fact that the knives are of aslightly greater diameter than the diameter of the rollers with theresult that their peripheral cutting edges extend into a plane beyondthe plane of the faces I 9 of the rollers. This constructional featureis of importance in the present invention as will be hereinafter morespecifically pointed out.

A supplemental arm 28 extends outwardly from the upper end of each ofthe pivotally mounted main arms II and across the ends of these arms ispositioned a weight 2|.

,A pair of bars 22 also extend across the space between the supplementalarms 20 and these rods are arranged in separated parallel relationship.A series of fingers D are carried loosely by these rods and haveportions 23 which extend into the space between the knives 13. Withtheir loose mounting, the fingers can move axially of the rods andproperly center themselves between the knives. Bars of an angular shapein crosssection could be substituted for the round rods illustrated.This series of fingers constitute a comb which functions in a mannerhereinafter to be more fully described.

The shaft 2 at the right hand end of the machine extends outwardlybeyond the supporting frame and is provided with a pulley 24 which isadapted for driving connection with any suitable source of power drive.Rotation of the shaft 2 and its drum will through the conveyor B rotatethe shaft I and its drum. Rotation of the shaft 2 is in a clockwisedirection with the result that the conveyor rotates also in a clockwisedirection, as is clearly indicated by arrow on Fig. 2 of the drawings.

The shaft l at the opposite end of the machine is extended outwardly andcarries a pulley 25 and the shaft 9 is extended outwardly and carries apulley 26. A driving belt 21 interconnects these two pulleys with theresult that the shaft 9 is driven off of the shaft I and therefore bythe main source of power drive connected to the main drive pulley 24.The drive for the shaft 9 is so arranged that this shaft rotates in acounter-clockwise direction, as indicated by arrow in Fig. 1 of thedrawings.

Preferably, although not necessarily, the shaft 9 and its knives may berotated at a greater speed than the travel of the belt conveyor. It hasbeen found that better results in the slicing of certain vegetables canbe obtained by speeding up the rotation of the knives in respect to themovement of the vegetables on the belt conveyor.

A slicer is diagrammatically illustrated at E and is positioned abovethe belt conveyor adjacent the left hand end of the machine. Detaileddescription of this slicer is considered unnecessary in that itconstitutes merely some conventional form of device for slicingvegetables, fruits or the like into slabs or slices of any desiredthickness.

By reason of the pivotal mounting of the knives and the rollers C thesemembers are yieldably supported upon the conveyor belt. The weight 2|assures against the knives lifting rather than cutting through anyvegetable or fruit slices carried to the knives by the belt conveyor.This particular form of mounting is advantageous in that it will permitthe knives to rise and ride over any foreign substance which may fallupon the conveyor and be carried to them. In this manner the knives areprotected from being broken or injured as might be the case could theynot lift and ride over foreign substances.

As mentioned, the speed of the knives will vary due to the toughness ofthe vegetable or the thickness of the slice.

It has been mentioned that the belt conveyor itself be rubber, have arubber surface or have a surface of some similarity to rubber. It is ofthe utmost importance, for the purpose of assuring a clean and completecut of the vegetable slices by the knives, that the knives actuallypenetrate the conveyor belt. It is also highly important that provisionbe. made that the knives penetrate the conveyor belt, only apredetermined distance, for otherwise it will be readily understood thatthe conveyor belt would be quickly destroyed. This feature has beentaken care of in what is considered to be a particularly novel manner bythe provision of the rollers C which are of a predetermined lesserdiameter than the diameter of the knives.

By reference to Fig. 3 of the drawings it will be seen that the facesI!) of these rollers bear upon the marginal edges of the conveyor belt,which slightly compress it. By this arrangement the knives actuallypenetrate into the surface of the belt a distance which is equal to thedistance which they extend beyond the rollers, which is of course theactual difference in diameter of the knives and the rollers. Thepenetration of the cutting edges of the knives into the belt isdiagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 4 of the drawings. After themachine has been in operation for some time the belt actually becomesgrooved to receive the cutting edges of the knives, as is desig nated at29.

The problem of definitely providing for the penetration of the knives apredetermined distance into the belt is one which although fully takencare of in a simple manner in the present invention was not a problemsimple of solution. This is true because belts are not guaranteed to beof uniform thickness throughout their lengths. The present arrangementhowever will assure penetration of the knives a predetermined distanceinto the belt irrespective of variance in the thickness of the belt.Additionally when the belt ends are joined, as illustrated in Fig. 6 ofthe drawings it is customary to place a protective covering such as 30over the connectors or lacings. If metallic connecting meansis utilizedthis covering is necessary to protect the knives against injury, and ifa type of lacing is used which'is susceptible of being cut by the knivesit is necessary to protect-the'lacing against. the knives. Consequentlyin either event the protecting cover element is necessary with theresult that the thickness of the belt is materially increased at thepoint where the belt ends are connected. j I V The improved arrangementheretofore described however is s'uch as to-assure-a predeterminedpenetrationof the knives even at this point where the belt is greatlythickened. Fig. 6 of the drawings illustrates the manner in which therollers will follow the thickened contour of the belt and lift theknives the necessary distance to maintain the predetermined engagementof the knives withthebeltj It is to be understood that thenumber ofknives and their spacing can be varied as desired to provide for varyingconditions of operation and to provide for cutting the vegetables intostrips of any desired width. For the purpose of protecting the knives aswell as protecting the operator of the machine, a removablehood or guard3| is provided.

From the description thus far given it will be seen that the knives arepivotally mounted in respect to the conveyor which is 'the bed againstwhich they cut. The machine is designed primarily for sale to canners toprovide a device by which vegetables or fruits can be readily andcheaply cut into strip or shoestring form. However the canner maybecalled upon to fill an order where the customer desires the product outonly into slices or slabs, and to enable the cannerto use the slicer Efor this purpose the present machine is provided with a pivotallymounted bracket arm 32 which may be swung upwardly for engagement withone of the supplemental bracket arms 20 to holdthe knives in an elevatedposition'abo-ve and out of engagement with the belt so that the vegetable slices delivered to the belt by the slicer E may pass ofitheconveyor at the right hand end of the machine without being operatedupon by the circular knives l3. j

- In operation the vegetables, fruit or other foodstuff desired to becut into strips are fed to the slicer E which will cut them into slicesor-slabs and drop them out upon the conveyor B'which will carry themtoward and to the revolving knives. If the vegetables have been cut intoslices oneeighth inch thick the knives I3 wouldpreferably have beenspaced to cut the slices into strips one eighth inch wide so that thefinished strips would be approximately square in cross section.

The rotation of the knives will be such as to be proper for the type ofvegetable being operated upon. The weight 2! will assure that the kniveswill cut the vegetableslices irrespective of their toughness orthicknessl The rollers C are rotating freely on their supporting shaft 9and are constantly engaging the conveyor belt and at all times assureproper and'definite relationship between the knives and the conveyorbelt.-

The vegetable slices will pass through the knives and be cut intothedesired strip form and will be delivered into a receptacle or the likeplaced at the right hand end of themachine for their reception. Anyvegetable or fruit strips whichmight adhere to the knives willbe'removed from them by the combs or fingers D which'willcause them tofall downwardly upon the conveyor for delivery into the waitingreceptacle.

If a foreign substance, such as a block or stick upper ends of the arms.or uprights 41.

, delivers the fruit or vegetable slices to a rotatablymounted drum Fthe face of which has a rubber coating 32'or its equivalent. The knivesI3 which are exactly similar to those hereinbefore described, aremounted in spaced relationship upon a shaft 33 provided with 'a pulley34 having belt connection drive 35with the supporting shaft 36 of thedrum, which shaft is provided with a pulley 31 intended to have drivingconnection with any suitable source of power. V

The knife'assembly is carried by the arms 35 and 39 which are joined'bya shaft which is piv- .otally or rotatably mounted in suitable bracketsM positioned at each side of the drum and connected to the drumsupporting base H.

The knife assembly is provided with rollers C such as hereinbeforedescribed, which engage the coated surface of the drum and are ofslightly less diameter than the knives to assure a predeterminedpenetration of the knives into the drum coating in a manner exactlysimilar to that hereinbefore described. Weights 42 are adjustable uponextension arms 43 of the main knife assembly arms 38 and 39.

Just as in the first described form of machine, the knife assembly ispivotally and yieldably in engagement with the conveyor against which itoperates in actually'slicing the vegetables. A modig fled manner ofproviding adjustable means for holding theknife assembly in engagementwith the drum is illustrated in Fig. 11 of the drawings where it willbeseen that the shaft 44 which carries the knivesl3 and the rollers C isjournalled at its opposite ends in blocks 45 which are reciprocablewithin openings 45 provided in the The weight of the knives and therollers will in itself maintain them inproper engagement with the face32 of the drum and the upward movement ofthe shaft and the knives isadjustably under the control of the set screws 48.

In respect to this particular embodiment of the machine provision ismade whereby theknives are rotated in a direction opposite to thedirection of rotation of the drum and the fingers or comb heretoforementioned in respect to the first is designated by the same letter.namely D.

In Figs. 9 and 10 of the drawings a still differformof inventiondescribed is also utilized and ent machine isillustrated foraccomplishing the cutting of vegetables or the like into strips. The

principle of operation of this machine is similar to the machinespreviously described but a slightly different specific formofconstruction in that the knife blades are arranged at right angles tothe direction of movement of the conveyor rather than in alignment withthedirection of movement of the conveyor. 7

Describing this particular embodiment of the invention, R. and Sdesignate bases or pedestals arranged in separated relationship. Theshaft 59 carrying a drum5l is rotatably mounted on the pedestal R whilea shaft 52 carrying a drum 53 is rotatably mounted on the pedestal S.The endless conveyor belt B extends around these drums.

The drum 5| at oneend has its stub shaft 54 mounted in a horizontalplane above its stub shaft 55 at its opposite end. By this constructionthe drum is arranged at an angle to the horizontal, as clearly appearsin Fig. 10 of the draw ings.

The knife assembly is in the form of -a squirrel cage designated as anentirety by T. This squirrel cage comprises a series of knife blades 56mounted in separated parallel relationship between the rollers C. Theknife blades extend slightly beyond the periphery of the rollers.

This cage is rotatably supported on stub shafts 5? and 58 which aresuitably journalled in depending arms 59 of the pivotally mounted arms60. Each of the arms 60 is provided with an extension portion 6! uponwhich is adjustably mounted a weight 62.

The arms 66 are illustrated as being pivotally mounted upon the shaft 52and the arms are of such a length that the squirrel cage rests upon thebelt conveyor immediately above the inclined drum or roller 5|. Thesquirrel cage is given the same inclination as the drum by mounting itsstub shaft 5'! in a horizontal plane above its opposite end stub shaft58.

The rollers C engage the belt conveyor and permit the cutting edges ofthe knife blades to penetrate or cut into the conveyor belt only apredetermined distance, namely the distance which said blades extendbeyond the peripheries of said rollers.

The conveyor is driven through a pulley 63 and the squirrel cage througha pulley G4. Slices of vegetables are delivered to the conveyor by asuitable slicer E.

In operation the vegetable slices fall from the slicer E onto theconveyor which carries them to the slicer blades 56. As the slices passbetween the blades and the conveyor belt they are cut into strips, whichstrips enter into the hollow cage and due to the inclination thereof aredischarged through the openings 65 provided in the roller C at the lowend of the cage and at the low side of the conveyor.

Mention has been made of the fact that axial movement of the rollers, Tis limited by reason of the fact that these rollers are positioned atthe inner sides of the flanges of the end closures of the roller ordrum. This construction assures that each of the knives willcontinuously contact the belt conveyor on the same line which is ofmaterial importance to assure that the knives will eventually groove theconveyor in the manner hereinbefore described and that each of theknives will enter and run in its proper groove after the conveyorbecomes grooved from continuous usage.

It is realized that a pre-grooved belt could be used, but it has beenfound to be more desirable not to use such a belt because the beltconveyor through its engagement with the knives tends to sharpen or honethem and thus maintain them in a bright and sharpened state. In otherwords, permitting the knives themselves to cut their own grooves ispreferable to pre-grooving the belt conveyor.

Although it is probably obvious, mention is made of the fact that themachine can be reversed without departing from the spirit of theinvention. The machine will be reversed when the knife assembly is movedto the opposite end of the machine to that in which it is illustrated inthe drawings. Reversal in this manner would mean a reversal in thedirection of movement of the conveyor as Well as a reversal in thedirection of the cutting knives.

It should also be obvious that it is not necessary or essential that theslicer which cuts the vegetables or food-stufi into slices or slabsbepositioned immediately above or adjacent the conveyor. The slicerwhich performs this function could be positioned remote to the machineand the slices of vegetables or food-stuff brought to the conveyor inany suitable or convenient manner.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the present invention providesan extremely simple machine yet is capable of rapidly, efliciently andeconomically slicing all kinds of vegetables into strip or shoestringform. The machine is not limited to operation upon any particularvegetables or to vegetables of any particular shape as it will operateequally as well on carrots or any foods as it will on potatoes.

It will be further understood that machines built in accordance with theinvention will be economical of operation because of the positiveprovision which is made to assure the knives out only a predetermineddistance into the conveyor. With this attribute a. very considerablesaving will be effected in the matter of the necessity of replacement ofconveyors. The construction is such that the knives will completely outor sever the entire thickness of the vegetable slices yet at the sametime will not detrimentally affect the conveyor against which the knivesoperate.

I claim:

1. In a slicing machine, an endless conveyor having a surface capable ofbeing penetrated by knives, means to deliver slices of vegetables tosaid conveyor, a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of knivesrotatable with the shaft and arranged in spaced parallelrelationship, apair of rollers carried by said shaft and of slightly less diameter thansaid knives, said shaft positioned above said conveyor and freelymovable in respect thereto, said rollers being freely rotatable uponsaid shaft and adapted to engage said conveyor for definitelydetermining the degree of contact of the knives with said conveyor,means to rotate said conveyor towards said knives, and

. means to rotate said knives in a direction opposite to the movement ofsaid conveyor.

2. A construction such as defined in claim 1, wherein means are providedfor rotating the knives at a speed greater than the movement of theconveyor.

3. In a slicing machine, an endless conveyor having a surface capable ofbeing penetrated by knives, means to deliver vegetables to saidconveyor, a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of knives rotatablewith the shaft and arranged in spaced parallel relationship, a pair ofrollers carried by said shaft and of slightly less diameter than saidknives, said shaft positioned above said conveyor and freely movableoutwardly in respect thereto, said rollers being freely rotatable uponsaid shaft and adapted to engage said conveyor for definitely limitingthe inward movement of the knives to determine the distance they shallpenetrate said conveyor, and the free outward movement of the knivesacting to avoid injury thereof by foreign matter on the conveyor, andmeans for rotating said conveyor and said knives.

4. In a slicing machine, an endless conveyor having a surface capable ofbeing penetrated by knives, means to deliver vegetables to saidconveyor, a rotatable shaft carrying a plurality of knives rotatablewith the shaft and arranged in spaced parallel relationship, a pair ofrollers carried by said shaft and of slightly less diameter than saidknives, said shaft positioned above said conveyor, said rollers beingfreely rotatable upon said'shaft, means holding said rollers inengagement with said conveyor for definitely limiting the inwardmovement of the knives to determine the distance they shall penetratesaid conveyor,

and means for rotating said conveyor and said 5 knives.

MORTIlVIER R. ANSTICE.

